Friday Rap-Up: Dent, Ice Cube, MC Serch, Yo-Yo, Eminem

Dent has been putting in work in the Denver scene for close to a decade. He’s been a freestyle battle champ, he’s appeared on a variety of local albums, and has put together a compilation album featuring some of Denver’s finest hip-hop artists. He released six-track EP called Platinum in the Shower a couple of years ago, but has yet to release a full album, until now.

“This rap game is cutthroat,” Dent said in regards to why it took so long to drop his debut, ConfiDENT. “I’ve been uninspired because of this industry. But now that hip-hop has no essence, I got tired of setting on all this fresh music I’ve been making and wanted to put it out there. I want people to get a good dose of hip-hop and bring it back to essence.”

He worked on ConfiDENT – which drops locally today, March 21 -- in between working as a video editor for Comcast and event coordinator for The Roxy. For now, here’s a taste of what’s to come in this commercial:

Ice Cube readies new album

It’s only been a couple of years since Ice Cube dropped an album, but we’re guessing he’s pretty anxious to drop another. The veteran rapper announced that he’ll be releasing his new album, Raw Footage, on June 17 through his label Lench Mob Records. The album will feature appearances from WC, Scarface, Nas, Musiq, Soulchild and production from Emile, Wreck and others.

His first single is “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It,” which he performed last weekend at the SXSW Music Festival.

MC Serch, Yo-Yo look for next female rapper

After the success of last year’s White Rapper Show, VH1 has called upon MC Serch once again for another rap star search. This time Serch will partner with veteran female west coast rapper Yo-Yo to find the next female rap superstar. The show, ego trip’s Miss Rap Supreme, will work with ten aspiring female rappers as they compete for $100,000 in prize money and hopes for rap superstardom. The show will premiere on VH1 on April 14.

Eminem, Royce the 5’9” squash beef

Eminem and Royce the 5’9” used to be tight. Before Eminem became a worldwide bonafied superstar, he and Royce had a group called Bad Meets Evil, they released a couple of singles together, and even went on tour together. Then came Proof and D12 to get between them. Royce and D12 were up to their necks in beef until Proof was killed at a Detroit club in 2006, which ended all of their differences. Now Royce is saying that he and Eminem have recently mended their long friendship in an interview.

“I been talking to Em,” Royce told HipHopDX.com. “I didn’t even really wanna tell nobody [yet]. That was kinda like a secret thing. I don’t really know where it’s gonna go. Right now we’re just really focusing on repairing the friendship. That’s the most important thing to me. We just been talking about intangible shit like movies, our favorite movies, just realizing how much shit we always had in common. That first conversation we had we talked for like two hours, just about everything. We did a lot of catching up.”

Although rumors have been swirling that the two have reunited musically, Royce said that they haven’t even begun to talk about working on music together. Although they do plan on sharing what they’ve individually, recording music together may be a bit off.

NEW RELEASES

Snoop DoggEgo Trippin’
At this point in his career, Snoop can really do no wrong. The proof is his attempt at singing on this album, which is more than just his hit “Sensual Seduction.” He gives a stab at covering songs by both The Time and Johnny Cash. Regardless, the album needs to be heard just because of QDT, the production and oversight crew of DJ Quik, Snoop, and Teddy Riley (who produced most of the tracks).

Del the Funkee HomosapienEleventh Hour
People forget that Del has been spittin’ rhymes on wax for 17 years and in that time the Oakland emcee hasn’t lost a step. With his new album he stays lyrically on point and production-wise he’s all over the place with some sci-fi beats and funk grooves that would sound at home on his debut album. Although Del produced the album himself and there are no appearances from the Hieroglyphics collective, it’s a pretty solid effort.

Rick RossTrilla
Ross’ new album basically picks up where his debut, “Port of Miami,” left off. Hot, head-nodding beats but rhymes that offer new to the scene. Granted, Ross has a distinguished that’s a blast to mimic, but beyond that, the beats are the only thing that’ll keep you going back to listen to the album.
-- Quibian Salazar-Moreno